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Another successful cruise

Author:
Elizabeth Ricci
Host Vessel:
R/V Atlantic Explorer

Hello hello,

So another cruise successfully wrapped up here. It was a short trip (just 4 days) but the science teams never fail to keep us busy! Everything went pretty well but we did have to abort one of the 4 MOCNESS casts because there was some trouble with the winch. So to back up a little bit, the MOCNESS stands for Multiple Opening and Closing Net, with an Environmental Sensing System. It is a big aluminum frame that has 9 big nets attached to it. When the system is in the water the opening of each net is controlled by a person on the bridge so that each net can collect samples from different water depths. It is a pretty cool contraption.

Unfortunately the first time we got it into the water the MOCNESS was doing just fine but the winch controlling it started getting hot and smoking. Thankfully the winch operator noticed it very quickly and was able to emergency stop the operation. It then fell on the marine tech and one of the engineers to start tinkering with the winch to see what the issue was. Apparently one of the 3 contact points on the brake was stuck and and had to be released and cleaned up before it could be put back together again. A very special nod to the brilliantly capable engineers that keep these ships running...even at 3 am.

After that small snafu the rest of the cruise was excellent. Everything went well and we were able to collect all of the samples that the science team requested, and the other 3 MOCNESS casts went off without a hitch. We even deployed and recovered a glider. Unfortunately there is nothing on the glider that allows it to be picked up from the ship. I mean really nothing...no D-ring, no hooks, no way to grab it at all. So for us to recover the gliders we have to go out in the small boat and literally grab it out of the water by hand. It was me, Nick the marine tech, and Ronnie the bosun out for a short ride in the small safety boat. Thankfully Nick is a very tall young man with a good long reach so once we got to the glider he reached down and grabbed it while Ronnie and I tried to help him haul it in and secure it. Then we drove it right up to the back deck of the Atlanitic Explorer and passed it over. Went pretty smootly all in all but still very thankful Nick had those long arms:)

Well that is most of the excitement from our last cruise and I still have a few days here on land before the next one so until next time,

Elizabeth

PS...I do have more pictures to add for for the moment I am unable to upload images (again...sigh) so I will have to investigate before I can include any more

This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant Numbers DRL/ITEST 1312333 and DUE/ATE 1104310. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.